Soviet Plan for the Transformation of Nature
The "Soviet Plan for the Transformation of Nature" was an ambitious initiative launched by Joseph Stalin between 1948 and 1953 aimed at drastically boosting agricultural production in the Soviet Union. Central to this plan was the controversial work of Trofim Lysenko, a biologist who rejected established genetic principles, promoting instead the idea that environmental factors could induce hereditary changes in plants. The plan included the establishment of vast agricultural strips and the mass planting of trees to modify the harsh climate, relying on Lysenko's unverified methods to improve crop yields. Despite initial government endorsement and optimism about limitless harvest growth, the initiative ultimately failed, leading to significant agricultural shortfalls.
By the time of Stalin's death in 1953, Lysenko's theories had fallen into disrepute, and the plan was abandoned. This period saw a detrimental impact on scientific progress in the Soviet Union, as Lysenko's dominance fostered an environment where dissenting scientific views were suppressed. The repercussions of this approach extended beyond agriculture, hindering advancements in other scientific fields as well. The legacy of the plan highlighted the dangers of intertwining ideology with scientific practice and delayed the resumption of legitimate scientific inquiry in the Soviet Union until the 1970s.
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Soviet Plan for the Transformation of Nature
IDENTIFICATION: An unsuccessful plan that was intended to increase Soviet agricultural production dramatically
DATES: 1948-1953
Joseph Stalin’s plan to increase his nation’s agricultural production by applying the notions of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko, who rejected orthodox genetics, failed to produce any positive results for the Soviet Union. On the contrary, Lysenko’s ideas set back the state of science in the Soviet Union for decades.
The pseudo biologist Trofim Denisovich Lysenko and his followers, known as Lysenkoists, came into prominence during the 1930s. In 1932, at the International Congress of Genetics held at Cornell University, prominent Soviet biologist Nikolai Vavilov praised Lysenko’s experiments with adapting grain and other plants to unfavorable climates through a mysterious process known as “vernalization” (preheating the seeds). Vavilov’s praise for Lysenko was met with skepticism by other scientists, and eventually Vavilov also came to question Lysenko’s results. After further inquiries, Vavilov became Lysenko’s most outspoken critic in the Soviet scientific community.
Undaunted by rebukes from traditional scientists, the Lysenkoists made preposterous claims that wheat could be turned into barley, oats into rye, and oak trees into pine trees. The more bizarre the assertions, the more credibility they earned with Soviet Communist Party leaders. The Lysenkoists predicated all of their wild contentions on the conviction that orthodox genetics, and the whole notion of the primacy of genes, was a capitalist plot to hold back the advance of the Soviet Union. Environment, they insisted, could cause hereditary changes in plants. All that was necessary for the rapid improvement of Soviet agriculture was to assist crops in adjusting to different environments. There was no reason, therefore, that warm-weather crops could not be grown successfully in cold climates.
Those who spoke against Lysenko’s ideas found themselves charged with being anti-Communist. Many were removed from their posts, and some were purged from the party itself after 1935. Lysenko, meanwhile, rose quickly; in 1939 he replaced Vavilov as director of the Leningrad Plant Growing Institute. The following year, in a great irony, Lysenko was appointed head of the Genetics Institute. Shortly thereafter, Vavilov was arrested and sent to Siberia, where he died in 1943.
During the period from 1941 to 1945, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was preoccupied with the war effort, but when the fighting ceased, he turned his attention to rebuilding the Soviet Union. The country’s greatest need was to increase agricultural production, and the Lysenkoists were promising great results with the abandonment of orthodox genetics. In July 1948, Stalin and the Communist Party’s powerful Central Committee gave the Lysenkoists an official endorsement. Party leaders liked the Lysenkoist notion of “proletarian” science, as opposed to the “degenerate, elitist” science practiced in the West.
On October 24, 1948, Stalin issued a decree for the Soviet Plan for the Transformation of Nature to begin. Peasant labor was to be used to establish huge agricultural strips (60 meters, or 200 feet, wide) in western Russia. Lysenko’s methods would be used to improve grain yields. In addition, millions of trees would be planted in the regions to help ease the harshness of the climate. The trees were to be planted in clusters in the belief that some would survive by adjusting to their new environment. Those that survived would then reproduce and thus alter the Soviet terrain. The plan also included the grafting and crossbreeding of plants to other plants; by these methods it was believed that ordinary weeds could be turned into wheat.
On January 1, 1949, Lysenko predicted that there would be a limitless growth in Soviet harvests. Soviet leaders proclaimed in 1950 that the plan was well on its way to success. In actuality, however, the opposite was true. In 1952 Stalin, embarrassed by reports of low crop production, attempted to deflect attention from the Plan for the Transformation of Nature by introducing a massive scheme for the building of dams and canals. Stalin also began to permit scientific criticism of Lysenko’s methods. By the time of Stalin’s death in March 1953, Lysenkoism had fallen into disrepute.
With Stalin gone, the Soviet Plan for the Transformation of Nature was abandoned, and opposing scientific views were again recognized. Lysenko, however, continued to insist that he was right, and when Nikita Khrushchev emerged as Soviet leader in 1957, Lysenko made a brief return to prominence. Khrushchev, like Stalin, desperately sought a cure for his country’s agricultural problems. This time, however, Lysenko’s critics could not be silenced. Khrushchev’s support for the discredited Lysenko contributed to the Soviet leader’s removal from office in October 1964.
The Soviet Plan for the Transformation of Nature produced no positive results for the Soviet Union. It did, however, have negative consequences. In particular, scientific advances in biology were disrupted by Lysenko’s insistence that his critics be silenced and removed from their government posts. By the time Stalin realized that he had been misled by the Lysenkoists, this setback could not be repaired in a short time. Moreover, other areas of science, including medicine, were also affected in the Soviet Union. Many individuals, who later became known as “harebrained” scientists, attempted to gain favor from the Communist Party. The party, clearly more interested in proper ideology than in proper science, all too often endorsed dubious scientific methods during the late 1940s. It was not until the 1970’s that the Soviet Union fully rejoined the world of legitimate scientific inquiry.
Bibliography
Joravsky, David. The Lysenko Affair. 1970. Reprint. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
Schwartz, Katrina Z. S. Nature and National Identity After Communism: Globalizing the Ethnoscape. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006.
Stevenson, Leslie, and Henry Byerly. “Scientists and the Totalitarian State.” In The Many Faces of Science: An Introduction to Scientists, Values, and Society. 2d ed. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 2000.
Ulam, Adam B. Stalin: The Man and His Era. 1973. Reprint. New York: Viking Press, 1987.
Weiner, Douglas R. “The Predatory Tribute-Taking State: A Framework for Understanding Russian Environmental History.” In The Environment and World History, edited by Edmund Burke III and Kenneth Pomeranz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.